


Angel

by yankeetooter



Category: Chernobyl (TV 2019)
Genre: Guardian Angels, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-17 21:40:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21700165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yankeetooter/pseuds/yankeetooter
Summary: Valery is not a religious man, but perhaps he has a guardian angel regardless.
Relationships: Valery Legasov/Boris Shcherbina
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	Angel

Valery was walking around the market in the small Ukrainian village when the old grandmother stopped him. (They had driven to the village to get some fresh food after Boris complained about the army rations they were forced to eat at Chernobyl.)

"Young man," the grandmother said, taking Valery's arm and half pulling him towards her stall, "you come and see my wares, yes?"

Valery, half-amused, allowed the old woman to drag him along. Something about her reminded him of his own grandmother, who had died some ten years ago. The family matriarch had been the only one who treated Valery kindly besides his sister. 

As he walked with her, he just managed to stop himself from tripping on the ruts in the country road. He'd already fallen once on the uneven road, not hurting himself, but dirtying his pants. (And just wait until Boris saw what a mess he was!)

As they drew closer to the stall, Valery saw a small army of figurines, most of them angels, or so he guessed by their wings.

"I have just the one for you, young man," the grandmother proclaimed, placing the selected figure in Valery's hand. "This is a guardian angel. You could use one, eh? It seems your's deserted you some time ago."

Valery half smiled. He imagined the woman had seen his tumble of a few minutes ago, but Valery didn't go in for this sort of stuff. Angels, religious icons, all of that religious bunk. Not only was religion not sanctioned by the Soviet Union, but Valery's scientific brain would never be able to accept such nonsense. So, as sweet as the old woman was, he handed her back the figurine, albeit respectfully.

The old woman waggled her finger at him. "You need a guardian angel. Everyone does! You work up by the bad place, yes? The place where all the smoke is?"

Valery frowned. She must mean Chernobyl. Well, there was no harm in saying he was working there, so he nodded.

"Aha!" she said, poking him in the chest with a wrinkled finger. "How will you work up there without getting hurt, or worse, if you don't have a guardian angel? You must take this! I will give it to you...no charge!"

But Valery refused gently and walked away. He refused to buy into religious myths, and besides, no guardian angel, even if they really existed, would ever be able to protect him from himself. He was a walking disaster, and there was no cure for that.

His arm was suddenly pulled around, almost making him lose his balance. The grandmother glared at him imperiously. "Meh! You scoff at what you do not understand. I will ask God to send you a guardian angel, and then maybe you will believe!"

Valery finally got away from her and went to find Boris and their driver, What complete and utter nonsense!

They were back by two in the afternoon, so after grabbing a quick lunch, Boris and Valery walked around the site, surveying the cleanup efforts. Valery, still thinking about the odd incident in the village, was even more distracted than usual. Several times he almost fell amongst the rubble, but each time Boris' strong hands grabbed him and stopped his fall.

Boris made as if to keep one hand on Valery's arm while they walked, an action that Valery would have normally happily allowed for the intimacy it implied. But Valery was so embarrassed by his extreme clumsiness that afternoon that he defiantly shrugged off Boris' hand like a petulant child. Boris finally gave up trying but stayed nearby.

They were around the back of the building when it happened. Valery had wandered a little ways off from Boris, and was backing up to get a better view of the damaged reactor 4 and its roof line some distance away. (Of course, they couldn't get too close, it wasn't safe.) Boris glanced over and saw something that made his blood freeze. Not far behind where Valery stood was a dark block of something, and it was most certainly not burnt concrete!*

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl. Boris, afraid to startle Valery by shouting to him, sprinted toward him instead. Valery, mostly turned away from Boris, stumbled a bit, lost his balance and began to fall backwards towards the graphite. Boris crashed into Valery hard, his momentum carrying both of them away from the graphite. He finally landed on top of Valery some thirty feet away from the dangerous block. 

Valery harrumphed indignantly, but had no time to catch his breath before Boris grabbed him up over his shoulder and, taking a wide detour away from the rubble, ran for the road nearby. Finally, a relatively safe distance away, he lowered Valery to the ground, checking him for any sign of effects, but Valery seemed fine.

"Boris! What was that all about? Carrying me off like I was a rag doll!" 

Boris was still trying to catch his breath, but pointed back the way they had come. Valery peering through his glasses, suddenly noticed the block of graphite. He staggered over to a bench and plopped down, Boris sitting beside him. Valery was stunned, to say the least. If he'd come into contact with that piece of graphite...he shuddered, unable to speak at the thought of what would have happened.

Boris, sensing his distress, put his arm around Valery's shoulders and pulled him close. "It's okay, Valery. Breathe." (This in response to Valery starting to be overcome with shock.) "Thank goodness you have me as your guardian angel, eh?"

Valery squinted up at Boris, puzzled. What had Boris just said? No, Valery thought, it can't be! But the more he thought about it on the way back to camp, the more he realized how many times Boris had saved him from injury or death. And how many times had Boris protected him from the KGB? He was always looking out for him too, making him eat, insisting that he sleep. Maybe the grandmother had been right. Maybe Boris was his guardian angel.

Valery drifted off to sleep that night, for once his mind not swirling with all the work that was ahead of them. As sleep began to claim him, he thought he sensed an angel sitting by his bed, an angel unusually tall and handsome, watching over him while he fell asleep.

*reference to Fomin's ridiculous claim from earlier that Boris had confused concrete with graphite.

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize, as this story probably has all sorts of discrepancies in it. I have no idea how being that close to a block of graphite at Chernobyl would have affected Boris and Valery. They didn't touch it, but Valery especially was not that far away from it. Boris did quickly remove him from the area, but I still might be wrong in having them suffer no immediate effects.


End file.
